We left off last time at Revelation 17:13 with the antichrist having come to power and having power over everyone with a confederation of ten powerful kings who have given the antichrist their power and so, he is doing well. He appears in charge of all things. He is the ultimate ruler over all the earth. Unfortunately, he has two opponents in front of him. One is Christ Himself so it isn’t going to go to well for him as you can imagine. Let’s start there.
We read in Revelation 17:14, “These will wage war against the Lamb,” so this confederation that the antichrist leads wages war against the Lamb, “and the Lamb will overcome them,” now we know that is going to happen, but Revelation 19 gives the details of this. This is kind of a prelude of the coming attractions. He overcomes them, “because He is Lord of lords and King of kings,” they are going to learn the hard way that the Lord is the true Lord and He is the true King, “and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” We will pick that up in Revelation 19:16 as we see a coalition of the saints that come with Christ.
We have another individual or entity that opposes the antichrist and that one doesn’t fair as well as we look at Revelation 17:15 that says, “And he said to me, ‘The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are people and multitudes and nations and tongues.’” Now we are going back to the great harlot and the people over whom she rules. The nations and the people of the world are under her. Revelation 17:16 continues, “And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot,” remember the antichrist came in earlier in the chapter sitting on the great harlot. That indicates that he came in with her to power, but she was dominate. She rode him, but now things are shifting, and the antichrist now has a confederation of powerful kingdoms. He has gotten above and beyond the great harlot and he turns on her. All along, he has hated her, and he doesn’t want to be under her rule or follow her leadership, and so now he turns on her and it says, “and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.” What an ugly picture. The antichrist turns on the great world system of religion that is opposed to God and opposed to God’s people, but now the antichrist turns on her, eats her up, destroys her and wipes her out . . .
